What the Spirit Awards Mean to Oscar

The Spirit Awards are a vital part of the awards race now, much more so than they were a decade ago. But because independent film is one of the only avenues for interesting, non-generic Hollywood films, the Spirit Awards are becoming a big event unto themselves. As Oscar continues to adhere to their tradition of rewarding safe, crowd pleasing entertainment, the Spirit Awards are freer in how they choose, what they reward and whether those wins ultimately mean something without the added label of “Oscar.” The interesting thing about it is that now they do.  Being a Spirit Award winner holds more cache apart from Oscar, similar to the Golden Globes.  The Spirit Award voters aren’t industry insiders nor are they film critics; they are a mixture of all of the above.

The nominating committee are:

Experts in the field. Three nominating committees are made up of members of the film community – one each for American Narrative films, Documentary films and International Narrative films. Committees may include film critics, film programmers, actors, producers, directors, writers, cinematographers, editors, past nominees and winners, and members of Film Independent’s Board of Directors. There are three additional committees for our Piaget Producers, Someone to Watch and Stella Artois Truer Than Fiction grant awards. For these Awards, three nominees, including the winner, will be selected by a committee of experts in the field.

Who votes on the nominees?

1. Who votes on the winners of the Spirit Awards after the Nominating Committees make their selections?
   The registered voting members of Film Independent and IFP vote upon the Spirit Award nominations to determine winners. Voting takes place online through a secure third-party website.
2. How are winners selected?
   Film Independent and IFP members have secure access to online ballots. Only one ballot is counted per person and all ballots are confidential. Ballots can be submitted online (deadline TBD February 2014). All ballots are tabulated by Integrity Voting Systems.
3. Who can become a member and vote on the Spirit Awards?
   Film Independent is a non-profit arts organization. Its voting members include filmmakers, film industry leaders, and film lovers. Anyone passionate about the art of film can join as a member and vote for the winners of the Spirit Awards. You are welcome to visitfilmindependent.org/membership and become a member today.

To that end, these are the “Cool People’s Choice” awards. It is still a selective group of people who vote but anyone can vote who can pay and join.  This is how the popular films like Silver Linings Playbook beat films like Beasts of the Southern Wild which, to me, defined what independent cinema really should mean. But alas, we’re still talking about a consensus vote at the end of the day, and when a lot of people are voting the choices get limited really quickly.

12 Years a Slave did not need a bump from the Spirit Awards.  That it leads the nods only confirms what many already believed.  Still, to make such a strong showing is impressive, even for a film that’s considered the frontrunner to win Best Picture.

But who got the biggest bumps from the Spirit nods  in terms of the Oscar race?

1. Bruce Dern and Nebraska – Dern really needed to continue his buzz after winning in Cannes.  This will help a lot, though he does go up against Robert Redford. They will be up against the current favorite, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and the dark horse to really watch out for, Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club.  Nebraska also needed a big boost and here, second behind 12 Years, is just the jolt the film needed.

2. JC Chandor and All is Lost – which picked up Director, Picture, Actor, Cinematography nods. Wow.  This is really the first awards show to give the film the kind of Best Picture prestige it needed. Moreover, it’s really in the spirit of independent film, so it’s great to see them acknowledge it in such a big way.   I also don’t know how you get Robert Redford in the room and then not give him Best Actor but luckily, I’m not voting on these.

3. Brie Larson and Short Term 12 – it’s entirely possible this will be it for this film.  That it wasn’t nominated for screenplay is bizarre, but neither were Joel and Ethan Coen, quite possibly among the best writers working in Hollywood period. It’s nice to see some love for this very small, very independent film.

4. Nicole Holofcener for Enough Said and Julie Delpy/Ethan Hawke/Richard Linklater for Before Midnight seem to bump them up when it comes to screenplay nominations at the Oscars.  Original Screenplay is the tighter category, however, but Holofcener is overdue by this point so perhaps she will rise to the top of the pile.

5. Michael B. Jordan for Fruitvale Station and Oscar Isaac for Inside Llewyn Davis – that they needed six slots shows you how crowded Best Actor is this year (well, every year).  The fifth slot for Oscar seems to be earmarked for Tom Hanks or Forest Whitaker but one never knows.

The Spirit Awards are actually more entertaining than the Oscars. Because of that, people do watch them.   The Oscars themselves are starting to resemble the Spirit Awards – so much so that at some point in the near future there might be no telling them apart.  The Oscars, since they’re supposed to promote highest achievement in film, are going to have to start evolving away from the kinds of films they love and more towards the kinds of films Hollywood is making. Either that or they’re going to have give all of their awards away to filmmakers from other countries, you know, where profit isn’t everything?